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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
AT
CHAPEL HILL
27515
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
June 2, 1965
The Honorable Dan K. Moore, Governor
North Carolina State Capitol
Raleigh, North Carolina
Dear Governor Moore:
This is the darkest day for me in my seventeen years as a member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Your refusal to recommend repeal of the "Speaker Ban" law may well be the most significant act of your administration and the most disastrous for North Carolina of any governor's decision in this century. You had a chance to strike a courageous blow for freedom, enlightenment, and education. I and many others had faith that at the appropriate time you would make an effective effort to free our institutions of higher learning from political censorship. During the past two years I have believed that the law was a fluke, that it couldn't really happen here if exposed to serious discussion and debate. Yet after two years of debate, nearly unanimous opposition on the part of the faculties, administrations and trustees of the University of North Carolina and other public colleges, the faculties and administrations of most of our private colleges and universities, the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges, the newspapers of the State, and many others qualified to have a responsible judgment, and in the face of possible loss of accreditation, you and the leaders of the legislature refuse even to seek amendment of the law at this session of the legislature! I suddenly feel that I am in a strange land where the American heritage I cherish is unknown.
Even if formal accreditation were not at issue, such a law discredits our colleges and the University. Already great damage has been done, but the failure of this legislature to repeal or ammend the law will do even greater injury. The one greatest problem we face at the University is recruiting and keeping first-rate faculty members. This law is a tremendous handicap in this respect. Our greatest asset in the past has been the free academic atmosphere of the institution and the respect the University enjoys in the State. During the past five years, as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, I have recruited professors from all over the United States, England, Germany, Canada, and Australia. Our reputation for freedom is known all over the world and has gone a long way toward compensating for our lower salaries in the academic world. But every professor I negotiated with during the past two years (and there were dozens of them) took a negative attitude toward the "Gag Law". My explanations of it as a fluke and my confidence that it would be repealed or amended in this legislature allayed the fears of some and helped us to attract some good men

This item was digitized by the State Archives for the fiftieth anniversary of the Speaker Ban Law. The materials in this online collection are only a small sample of the materials available on this subject from the State Archives of North Carolina. To locate other available materials on the Speaker Ban Law, visit the Archives online catalog, MARS.

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The SA of NC considers this item in the public domain by U.S. law but responsibility for permissions rests with researchers.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
AT
CHAPEL HILL
27515
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
June 2, 1965
The Honorable Dan K. Moore, Governor
North Carolina State Capitol
Raleigh, North Carolina
Dear Governor Moore:
This is the darkest day for me in my seventeen years as a member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Your refusal to recommend repeal of the "Speaker Ban" law may well be the most significant act of your administration and the most disastrous for North Carolina of any governor's decision in this century. You had a chance to strike a courageous blow for freedom, enlightenment, and education. I and many others had faith that at the appropriate time you would make an effective effort to free our institutions of higher learning from political censorship. During the past two years I have believed that the law was a fluke, that it couldn't really happen here if exposed to serious discussion and debate. Yet after two years of debate, nearly unanimous opposition on the part of the faculties, administrations and trustees of the University of North Carolina and other public colleges, the faculties and administrations of most of our private colleges and universities, the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges, the newspapers of the State, and many others qualified to have a responsible judgment, and in the face of possible loss of accreditation, you and the leaders of the legislature refuse even to seek amendment of the law at this session of the legislature! I suddenly feel that I am in a strange land where the American heritage I cherish is unknown.
Even if formal accreditation were not at issue, such a law discredits our colleges and the University. Already great damage has been done, but the failure of this legislature to repeal or ammend the law will do even greater injury. The one greatest problem we face at the University is recruiting and keeping first-rate faculty members. This law is a tremendous handicap in this respect. Our greatest asset in the past has been the free academic atmosphere of the institution and the respect the University enjoys in the State. During the past five years, as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, I have recruited professors from all over the United States, England, Germany, Canada, and Australia. Our reputation for freedom is known all over the world and has gone a long way toward compensating for our lower salaries in the academic world. But every professor I negotiated with during the past two years (and there were dozens of them) took a negative attitude toward the "Gag Law". My explanations of it as a fluke and my confidence that it would be repealed or amended in this legislature allayed the fears of some and helped us to attract some good men